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At ii social gathi-ring of neighbors and friends, at tlie 
residence of Hon. Samuel Ilaycraft, in Elizabelhtown, 
Kentucky, on Monday evening, 30tb December, ISfJT, the 
following notes of a European tour were read. 



Laiuks and Gentlemen: 

Many of my relations uml friends liave manifestod a 
desire to hear something of my recent visit to Europe, and 
in order to gratify their wishes, I have written out some of 
my reeolleelions. 

As I am not a professional leeturei', and only make this 
effort tor the entertainment of my old friends and neigh- 
bors, I hn\y.' you will not expeet too mneli. 



pu 



ROPE. 



' Better fifty years of Euroi^e than a C3^cle in Cathay. 



A DESIRE to see the Old World is the 
laudable ambition of evciy American. 
To visit the source of our lineage, our 
language, aud our literature, forms the 
hopeful wish of youth, and will yield in- 
tense gratification to the maturit}^ of riper 
years. 

The facilities of travel have increased 
with the progress of the age, and the 
cockle-shells in which Columbus adven- 
tured upon unknown seas, are superseded 
by magnificent steam palaces, which daily 
plough the Atlantic, affording all the ac- 
commodation of a modern hotel. 

More than a hundred steamships are 
now engaged in the fast-growing com- 
merce between the Old and the New World, 
and modern science adds many safeguards 



O LIVERPOOL. 

to ocean navigation. In a fog, the steam 
whistle gives its lonesome notes of warning 
for a circumference of five or six miles, 
and the iron structures of the present 
steam marine almost insure them against 
the terrible calamity of fire. 

The Atlantic is a cluck pond, with the 
white- winged sailors spreading their can- 
vass in every direction, whilst here and 
there a black drake scuds along at the rate 
of sixteen miles an hour. 

My companion for the voyage was 
Professor Blake, Commissioner from 
California to the Paris Exposition, and on 
board we found Col. Peale and family, 
with whom we had both travelled by sea 
and land in many wanderings over the 
wide plains and along the Pacific shore. 

In eight days from New York you may 
roach the bright shores of the emerald 
isle, and in a few hours more the chalky 
cliffs of Holyhead, on a promontory of 
North Wales, bring you in sight of ancient 
towers and castles remote in origin as the 
period of the Roman conquest. 

Landing at Liverpool, you find con- 



LIVERPOOL. 9 

fronting j'ou a stone sea wall, sonic seven 
miles in length, saj'ing to the sea, " thns 
far shalt thou come, and no farther ;" and 
after passing some friendl}^ portal you are 
ensconsed in a safe harbor beyond the 
swell of the tide or the storms of the 
ocean. 

Liverpool has been built up since the 
discovery of the New World, principally 
upon the lucrative trade of America — 
commencing with slaves, and culminating 
with King Cotton. It has a population of 
half a million of souls as much dependent 
upon the prosperity of America as our 
own countrymen. 

The great wonder of Liverpool is her 
gigantic docks, covering an area of seven 
hundred acres, filled with the fleets of 
of nations. 

After visiting .the magnificent public 
buildings in Liverpool, constructed with a 
liberality worthy of her princely mer- 
chants, we left her busy marts of commerce 
for the antiquities of old England, and in 
three hours were in the ancient city of 
Chester, ii; the county of Cheshire, boast- 



10 CHESTER. 

ing an antiquity beyond histoiy, and 
bearing evidences on its stone monuments 
of having been occupied by the twentieth 
legion of Rome, sixty-one years before the 
birtli of Christ. 

This quaint old city carried us back to 
the feudal ages, when every town was 
walled, and portcullis gate, and warded 
tower guarded against a foray. 

The massive stone wall surrounding the 
city forms an irregular circle, affording a 
pleasant promenade and giving a fine view 
of the fat meadow lands which make the 
Cheshire cheese so famous. 

The houses are peculiarly built ; having 
their gable ends to the streets, projecting 
over the side walks, forming a covering 
for foot passengers in sun and rain. 

The cathedral of Chester was built upon 
the ruins of a Pagan temple sometime in 
the second century, and may be considered 
one of the oldest places of Christian w^or- 
ship in England. It is now a grand old 
Gothic church, with stained glass windows 
and ivy-covered walls, containing many 
relics of great interest and antiquity. 



EATON HALL. 11 

The green graveyard adjoining lias 
bloomed and faded over the tombstones of 
Chester for more than two thousand years, 
and here repose her honored dead — 

" Eac4i in his narrow cell for ever laid 

The rude forefathers of the hamlet sleep." 

The next morning, after breakfast at 
the Grosvenor Hotel, we started on a visit 
to Eaton Hall, the country scat of the 
Marquis of Westminster, the richest peer 
of Great Britain, enjoying an annual in- 
come from landed estates of over two 
million dollars in gold. 

A ride of five miles along tlie river Dee, 
the. boundary between England and Wales, 
brought us to the porter's lodge, and 
entering its guarded gates we rolled 
through a magnificent park shaded with 
English oaks and enlivened b}' hundreds 
of deer. 

The founder of the family of Grosvenor 
was a companion and nephew of William 
the Conc|uei-er, called in Normandy Gros- 
Venir, (the great hunter,) and the present 
Marquis is the twenty-second in lineal 
descent. 



12 EATON HALL. 

His lady is a daughter of the Duke and 
Duchess of Sutherland, so that in every 
respect they form one of the most noble 
families of England. 

The grand old Hall was ornamented 
with statuary representing the Conquest 
and the Crusades, and the armorial bear- 
ings illustrating the history of this ancient 
and honorable family. 

The old fashioned fire places on each 
side of the Hall were filled with wood 
ready to be set in a blaze upon the arrival 
of the noble ov/ner and his guests ; but 
they spend onl}^ about six weeks in the 
year at their paUitial countr}^ seat. 
The parlors, the drawing rooms, the 
picture gallery, and the chambers were 
politely thrown open to our inspection, 
and formed our first impressions of an 
English nobleman's countrj^ seat. A 
handsome chapel adjoins the palace, 
where landlord and tenant, mistress and 
maid, meet on common ground and cele- 
brate the beautiful service of the Church 
of England. 

The stone stables were fine and com- 



EATON HALL. 13 

modious, where his lordship's horses take 
their oats from marble troughs, and their 
lia}' from iron ricks. 

The conservatory is considered one of 
the finest in England, having cost about 
$260,000, including besides, a great 
variety of (lowers, grapes, peaches, pine- 
apples, strawberries, figs, oranges, lemons, 
and nectarines, from which the mansion 
house in London is daily supplied. 

AVe were delighted with this insight of 
English country life, and felt quite com- 
jjliniented by the exhibition of some 
California trees in which the gardener 
manifested great pride on account of their 
symmetrical beauty and rapid growth. 
They were brought from California by Lord 
Ricliard Grosvenor, the second son of the 
Marquis, who had spent some time in the 
golden land, on his tour around the world. 

Leaving Eaton Hall at four o'clock in 

the afternoon, wo walked back to Chester 

by a f(Jot-path along the shad}^ banks of 

Dee, and, taking the railway, were whisked 

off to London at the rate of sixty miles per 

hour. 
2 



11 LONDON. 

The countiy through which we passed 
was like a garden — every acre under fence 
and in a high state of cultivation and im- 
provement — nothing like the ruin and 
dilapidation of an old country, but neat, 
thrifty, and displaying taste. We were 
never out of sight of villages, and the smoke 
of manufactui'ing industry rose from every 
hill and valley to testify to the good policy 
of free trade which has made England the 
mart and manufacturing agent for the 
greater part of the world. 

The, first thing that impresses one in 
London is its immensity. 

Occupying a space on both sides of the 
river Thames, eighteen miles long by 
seven miles wide, and containing a popu- 
lation of four millions of people, it has 
become the commercial metropolis of the 
world. 

Its history rises into prominence with 
the arrival of William the Conqueror and 
the consolidation of England into one 
government. To enter upon an examina- 
tion of the principal objects of interest in 
London was a herculean task. 



LONDON. 15 

Of course, the first object to visit was 
the Tower — a pahice, a prison, and a 
tomb. It was intensely interesting from 
its historical associations reaching back 
through the greatest incidents of English 
histor}'. The old warder of the Tower, 
who explained its wonders, performed his 
dut}^ well. The traitors' gate, where 
prisoners of State were formerly received, 
is on the bank of the river, convenient for 
the reception of some doomed traitor who 
entering here might leave all hope behind. 
The drawbridge and portcullis gate are 
guarded as vigilantly now as if the city of 
London were besieged. The armories, 
where coats of mail for horse and man are 
preserved, from the time of the Crusades- 
until a period when gunpowder made them 
useless, are exhibited in all their burnished 
glory, as if kept ready for tilt or tourna- 
ment. The State prisons, where Raleigh, 
Queen Mary, Lady Jane Gray, Essex, 
Cromwell, Devereux, and others were 
confined are but little changed. The exe- 
cutioner's block upon a plat of greensward 
in the yard is shown you as the veritable 



16 LONDON. 

block where prisoner's heads rolled from 
their bodies, and, as a convincing proof, the 
guide points to the very gashes in the block 
as an evidence that the executioner did his 
work too well. The stairs under which 
the children princes were buried after 
their murder bj Richard III, and hun- 
dreds of other interesting reHcs of olden 
and barbarous times are here. The regalia 
of the Queen, and the Crown jewels of 
England, offered a pleaaant relief from 
these scenes of destruction and torture. 
They rest upon velvet cushions, and are 
valued at millions of pounds. The prin- 
cipal are St. Edward's crown of gold, set 
with diamonds, rubies, pearls, emeralds, 
and sapphires ; a staff of gold, four feet 
seven inches long, surmounted by an orb 
containing a piece of the true cross ; a 
gold baptismal font for the ro^^al children ; 
the Koh-i-noor diamond, the largest and 
finest of which we have any knowledge — 
a trophy from India presented to Queen 
Victoria. 

The next place of interest above the 
Tower is St. Paul's- Catliedral, the greatest 



LONDON. 17 

Protestant cliurch in the world. It was 
built by the proceeds of a tax levied on 
all the coals imported into London during 
its erection, and has cost over a million 
and a half pounds sterling. On a foggy 
day in London the dome can be seen when 
the lower part of the structure is obscured 
by the fog : — 

"That sacred pile, so vast, so high, 
That whether its part of earth or sky 
Uncertain seems, and may be thought a prond 
Aspiring mountain, or descending cloud." 

Li the '*rypt are monuments to Nelson, 
Cornwallis, Packenham, Wellington, and 
many of the most illustrious of England's 
heroes. The great bell weighs 12,000 
pounds, and is only tolled on the death 
of some member of the royal family. 

The Thames is spanned by a dozen 
bridges, over which the traffic of London 
surges in continual streams, whilst the 
river below is covered by a multitude of 
steamboats and river craft, carrying pas- 
sengers in every direction. 

There is a railroad from Charing Cross 
to what is called the " City," or old part of 



18 LONDON. 

London, with trains leaving every ten 
minutes. This metropolitan railroad is 
built entirely upon arches, raising its bed 
over the chimneys and house tops of 
Surrey, 

Another railway, less aspiring, carries 
passengers underground around the city, 
shooting them up at convenient stations 
and dragging others into its cavernous 
maw. 

For those afraid to venture over the 
water, the Thames Tunnel, that wonder of 
moderii engineering, has been constructed 
under the river, affording a passage as dry 
and quite as safe as the Israelites had 
through the Red Sea. The tunnel is twelve 
hundred feet long, is lighted with gas, and 
is well worth a visit as a curiosit3',but as 
an enterprise it has been a failure, and will 
so'on be converted into a transit for the city 
railways, which will then run under the 
streets and under the flowing water. 

The Houses of Parliament are on the 
immediate bank of the Thames, about five 
miles above London Bridge, which is the 
head of ship navigation. Massive, grand. 



LONDON. 19 

and gorgeous they rise from the swelling 
tides of commerce, fitting monuments of 
England's greatness. The building is not 
yet completed, although some ten millions 
of dollars have been expended upon the 
structure. The river front is nine hundred 
feet long. The A^ictoria tower looms up three 
hundred and sixty four feet in the air, sup- 
porting a large clock to notify the citizens of 
London of the flight of time. The House of 
Lords is richly furnished, but is heav}'- and 
dark. The peers sit on benches with their 
hats on, and speak in a rambling discursive 
style, without any attempt at orator3^ The 
House of Commons is ver}^ plain ; little or 
no accommodations are provided for spec- 
tators, and the trouble of procuring tickets 
of admission prevents a large attendance. 
The crypt is used as a chapel for the in- 
mates and is elaborately decorated wi'th 
gilding, mosaic, and frescos. You will 
excuse me for not attempting any descrijD- 
tion of the Houses of Parliament when you 
learn that they contain eleven hundred 
rooms. 

Opnosite this great theatre of England's 



20 LONDON. 

illustrious statesmen is the resting place 
of England's most illustrious dead — West- 
minster Abbey. In this venerable pile — 
itself defying time — repose the members 
of the royal family, the statesmen, the 
heroes, the poets of England, and in no 
other place is encompassed so much fame. 
Queen Elizabeth and her royal victim Mary 
Queen of Scots sleep peacefully side by 
side 5 and, of the two, the victim has the 
finest tomb, erected by her son James I. 
The eloquence of Pitt and Fox is hushed 
in eternal sleep : — 

" The mighty chiefs sleep side by side." 

A bust of Shakespeare makes the great 
master conspicuous by his absence. He 
chose rather to rest by the gentle Avon, 
in the shade of his native village church- 
yard, than in this crowded mausoleum. 
The Poets' Corner is thronged by these 
mighty spirits who, though dead, yet live 
in immortal song, and you stand in their 
presence with awe. 

Buckingham Palace, the town residence 
of the sovereigns of England, adjoins the 



LONDON. 21 

parks in the west end of London. The 
eastern front of this grand pile is 360 feet 
long, the interior is gorgeously furnished, 
and ornamented with paintings illustrating 
the glory of England. 

The royal stables, or mews as they are 
called here, contain the carriages of state 
and horses of the Queen and royal family. 
Some of which are only used on occasions 
of great ceremony, such as the opening of 
Parliament. 

The principal parks are St. James's, 
Hyde, and Regent's ; but none of them 
equal in extent and beauty the pride of 
America, the Central Park of New York. 

In the vicinity of London are many de- 
lightful countr}^ places which must be 
visited to obtain an intelligent understand- 
ing of English life and customs. Windsor 
Palace, the summer residence of the Queen, 
is first in importance, and amply repays 
one for the day which is required for the 
visit. Here the members of the royal 
family spend the most of their time ; and 
the taste manifested in everything pertain- 
ing to the royal household is worthy of 



22 WINDSOR. 

the family which should be, and is, an 
example to the people of England. The 
Prince Consort was considered a model 
man, and a pattern for all good husbands, 
and the only objection now made to the 
Queen is that she prolongs her period of 
mourning to the injury of trade in dry 
goods and ball costumes, as the festivities 
of the Court have been suspended since 
the death of Prince Albert. The people 
of England are erecting a noble monument 
to the departed husband of their Queen in 
Hyde Park as an evidence that no other 
man could have performed such difficult 
and delicate duties so well. A German by 
birth he sleeps quietly among the English 
people, remembered as a leader of every en- 
lightened enterprize and liberal movement. 
After examining the royal residence, 
chapel, and mews we had a drive of five 
miles through shady avenues of oak to 
Virginia Water, a silvery lake of magical 
beauty on the confines of the rojal demesne, 
and one of the most charming places in 
England. The stones of an ancient temple 
of Greece were transported to a remote spot 



RICHMOND. 23 

in this forest, and the temple was re-erected 
there under the immediate direction of 
George IV. A Chinese boat-house on the 
borders of the hike forms a rare rendez- 
vous for the royal children when bound 
on a boating or fishing excursion. The 
stump of Heme's oak remains to warn all 
who remember Falstaff to beware of the 
" Merry Wives of Windsor." 

A dinner at the " Wheatsheaf Inn," on 
the borders of the lake, with a pot of good 
English ale, brewed especiall}^ for the 
host, prepares you for a comfortable ride 
to London by midnight, which can now 
be made - without any danger of being- 
robbed by those rollicking knights of the 
road, Prince Hal, Falstaff, Bardolph, or 
Prim. 

Pvichmond Park, on the Thames, forms 
another delightful excursion, and by time- 
honored custom no one has a right to stay 
in England a week without going there 
and indulging in a dinner at the famous 
"Star and Garter Inn," the finest and 
most expensive public-house in England. 
The view up the Thames from the flower- 



24 HAMPTON COURT. 

covered terraces of the grounds adjoining 
this establishment surpasses all others. 
It is a landscape of ornamental villas, of 
gardens blooming with flowers, with the 
bright waters of the upper Thames mean- 
dering through green meadows, and bear- 
ing on its silvery bosom gaily decorated 
boats filled with happy pic-nic parties, 
joyous with the sound of music and merri- 
ment. Richmond Park, near by, has 
some lodges or country seats on its bor- 
ders ; among others, those of the Prince 
of Wales and Lord John Eussell. It is a 
royal demesne, and right royally kept, with 
its fine old oaks and herds of deer. 

Another place of surpassing interest is 
Hampton Court Palace, situated near the 
Thames, about twenty-five miles above 
London. This majestic palace was the 
creation of Cardinal Woolsey, when in the 
height of his pride and power, but is now 
a royal palace devoted to the accommoda- 
tion of decayed gentility who live here as 
pensioners on the Queen. This palace, at 
the time of its erection was the finest in 
England, and aroused the envy of the 



EN'GLAXB. 2d 

courtiers and the jealousy of the King, 
who enquired of the great prelate the 
cause of so much magnificence, but the 
wily cardinal answered that he was only 
attempting to build a palace worthy of the 
acceptance of his royal master. Woolsey 
lived here in regal magnificence, maintain- 
ing a retinue of eight hundred servants, 
and gave audience to kings. He died at 
a remote cathedral in the north of England, 
saying : — 

"Au old man broken with the storms of state 
Is corns to lay his weaiy bones among you, 
Give him a little earth for charity." 

The vinery here contains a grape-vine 
nearly a hundred years old, yielding some- 
times 3,000 bunches of grapes. Bushy 
Park, adjoining the palace, is planted with 
horse chestnuts in regular rows for a mile 
scjuare, and v/hen they blopm in the spring 
all London conies to see tliem. In this 
park also, are fountains and statuary, and 
about seven hundred deer. 

Sydenham, the palace of the London 
Exhibition of 1851, yet remains in all its 
grandeur, but its glories have faded before 



26 ENGLAND. 

the great Exposition, and all hie on to 
Paris. It was, however, sufhciently inter- 
estin , to attract twenty thousand people 
on the day of my visit, and contains objects 
ofinterest worthy of a week's investigation. 
The courts are divided into Egyptian, As- 
syrian, Greek, Roman, German, Italian, 
Byzantine, Alhambran, Pompeian, English 
and French, all filled with the wonders of 
different epochs. The gardens are most 
delightful, and the scener}^ surrounding 
the palace is unsurpassed in beaut}^ The 
evening was closed with a grand concert, 
the atmosphere was cooled with the play 
of fountains, and night illuminated by a 
brilliant display of fireworks. 

Greenwich Park and observatory de- 
mand a visit if but to see the snug harbor 
in which the limping old sailors of England 
are sheltered from the storms of life and 
the storms of the ocean. The observatory 
here regulates the time for the British 
marine, and in the remotest part of the 
South Sea or the frozen regions of tie 
j>3"orth Pole the faithful chronometer ticks 
in harmony with Greenwich time. A 



ENGLAND. 27 

white-bait dinner on the banks of the 
Tliames is a luxmy to be enjoj'ed but once 
in a lifetime, and after [)artaking of a dozen 
courses, all of the finnj^ tribe, one feels 
quite inclined to swiin back to London. 
Mr. George Wilkes, of the New York 
Spirit of the Times, did the hospitalities of 
the whitebait dinner in his usual generous 
style. 

Spurgeon's Tabernacle, on the Surrey 
side of the Thames, is generally visited by 
Americans, and one fine Sunda}^ with a 
part}^ of ladies and gentlemen from Cali- 
fornia, we attended service there. The 
building is the best arranged piece of 
architecture in London, having all the 
modern improvements ; it is somewhat 
theatrical in its interior appearance on 
account of the tiers of galleries around the 
sides and the stage or platform from which 
Mr. Spurgeon speaks. About five thou- 
sand persons can be comfortably seated, 
and there is standing room for at least two 
thousand more. A dozen or more doors 
for ingress and egress prevents any con 
fusion in admitting so large a congregation, 



28 ENGLAND. 

and in case of fire or panic would ensure 
their safety. The congregation seemed of 
the middle clnss of people, but had earnest, 
honest-looking faces, and were generally 
well clad and very decorous in deportment. 
Another Sunday, at the invitation of Mr. 
Gerald Ralston, Consul-General of Liberia 
in London, we went in company with Col. 
Forney, of Washington, and other friends, 
to visit some curious places in the oldest 
part of London. Leaving the Langham 
Hotel early in the morning we were carried 
by the underground railway to the vicinity 
of Houndsditch, the Jew quarter of Lon- 
don. Here the ragged fair is held every 
Sunday — men, women, and children of the 
scattered tribes of Israel are engaged in 
buying and selling old clothes and all 
manner of rubbish, and fortunate is the 
Gentile who passes through this throng of 
wretches without losing some part of his 
wardrobe. An enterprising young Israelite 
offered me an entire suit of clothes for a 
sixpence, but as they looked like they had 
been worn by all the descendants of Abra- 
ham, and I suspected they were already 



tenanted by Jerusalem travellers, the en- 
terprising young Israelite failed to make a 
sale. In the same vicinity we visited the 
Greek church, v>'here the young king of 
Greece was attending service. Near by, 
was a Quaker meeting-house, which a 
comely Quakeress exhibited to us, and also 
gave us some tracts. 

The Langham Hotel, on Portland Place, 
near Regent's Park, is one of the largest 
and finest hotels in London. It is kept 
by Col. Sanderson, an American, who has 
had much experience in Philadelphia and 
New York hotels. The building and fur- 
nishing of this" hotel cost about a million 
and a half dollars in gold, and it contains 
all the comforts of any European hotel. 
On account of the popularity of its Ameri- 
can proprietor a large number of our 
countrymen patronize it, and one feels as 
much at home as it is possible to do in any 
hotel kept on this plan. A very comfort- 
able room can be procured for about a 
dolhir a day, without involving the least 
obligation to take any of your meals in the 
house. You are perfectly free to eat where 



30 FRANCE. 

you please, and only have to pay for what 
you get. The living in London is excel- 
lent, and you generally get the worth of 
3'our money. The roast beef of old 
England was fairly tested and found equal 
to its reputation. Mutton chops, fish, and 
vegetables are served to perfection. I 
passed a month in London vainly en- 
deavouring to fathom its greatness ; a 
year w^ould scarcely suffice. 

We cannot linger any longer in the 
, great metropolis, but must hurry on to 
Paris, the gay, brilliant, fascinating French 
capital. The Emperor has spread a feast 
worthy of kings and invited the monarchs 
of Europe and Asia and the sovereigns of 
America to pay homage to the genius of 
the great enchanter of the nineteenth cen- 
tury, Napoleon III. The great Exposition 
of 1867 is in full blast, and the hurrying 
millions arc flocking to Paris. The South- 
eastern train carries us to Dover at the 
rate of sixty miles an hour, and in a 
hundred minutes we cross the English 
Channel and stand upon the classic soil of 
France. The crucifix and image of the 



FRANCE. 31 

Saviour erected on both sides of the en- 
trance to the harbor remind us that we 
are now entering a Catholic countrj^, and 
the peasantry iu wooden shoes and women 
in neat white caps form a pleasing con- 
trast to the sturdy yeomanry of England. 
Our route lay through Normandy, the 
most romantic province of France. In the 
ancient city of Rouen are a great many 
curious things. The cathedral contains 
the heart of Ricliard Coeur-de-Lion, which 
he bequeathed to the jN"ormans for the 
great love he bore them. In the museum 
you can see the -f of William the Con- 
queror. He could not write his name. 
The spot where Joan of Arc was burned 
at the stake is covered by a monument 
erected to her memory — it is also a monu- 
ment of infamy to those who sacrificed to a 
blind superstition one of the most enthusi- 
astic heroines of histor3^ 

A lover of antiquity and romance 
miglit linger for months amidst the fine 
old cities and grey ruined castles of Xor- 
mandy ; among the sturdy peasantry, with 
wooden shoes and flannel blouses, and 



32 1>ARIS. 

the charming brunettes with such nice 
white caps and winning manners; but we 
could remain only a few hours — we are 
bound for Paris — everybody is going to 
Paris. The journey from London to Paris 
now occupies no more than ten hours 
and a half — about the same time as a rail- 
way ride from New York to Washington ; 
but once arrived in gay and magnificent 
Paris, who shall describe its enchanting 
beauty. At the conquest of Caesar it was 
an insignificant hamlet on an island in the 
Seine, inhabited by a fierce and obstinate 
tribe of Gauls, called the Parisii. Now it 
is beyond comparison the finest city on the 
habitable globe, containing a population of 
three millions and a half, and assumes to 
be the capital of the civilized world. We 
stopped at the grand hotel on the princi- 
pal boidevart (des Italiens), a magnificent 
building forming a city in miniature, with 
a public square in the interior for a court- 
yard, and streets and avenues in its in- 
terior named to correspond with those on 
the outside. The apartments number six 
hundred, regulated in price by the altitude, 



PARIS. 33 

which gave us a very elevated location. 
The moving panoi-ama of arriving and de- 
parting guests and visitors affords an en- 
livening scene for those who lounge under 
the glass canopy of the central court, sip- 
ping their coffee and absinthe by the 
fragrance of orange trees and the soft 
strains of music. 

We lost no time in visiting the Inter- 
national Exposition, which has brought all 
the world to Paris ; but the bewildering 
mazes of its great j^lan, filled with all that 
is curious in nature, wonderful in art, and 
exalted in science, can never be described. 
All that government, wealth, art, science, 
and magic could produce had been brought 
together for inspection. A space of one 
hundred and three acres had been enclosed 
with a vast coliseum of iron covered with 
glass ; it occupied the Champ de Mars, 
which had been surrendered by the Em- 
peror for the purpose, thus giving up for 
a time the exercises of war for the peaceful 
arts of industry, in proof to the world 
that the "empire is peace." The Expo- 
sition was made accessible by steamboat, 



34 PARIS. 

railroad, omnibus, carriage, cab, and every 
conceivable and inconceivable conve3''ance 
ever used for the transportation of men, 
women, and children. The outside circle 
was appropriated to gardens, fountains, 
light-houses, aquariums, conservatories, 
models of pyramids, plans of isthmus- 
canals, and different designs of architec- 
ture. The first inner circle consisted en- 
tirely of specimens of steam machinery. 
Ascending a staircase about twenty feet 
high you could make the entire circuit of 
the Exposition amid the whirl and buzz 
and confusion of every species of machi- 
nery invented by every nation, engaged 
in every kind of manufacture, from a 
steam engine to a cambric needle. In 
making the circuit of this grand display 
of human ingenuity, taking a yard at a 
stride, you would have to make fifteen 
thousand steps. Inside this circle of 
buzzing industry were ten other circles 
intersected by transverse galleries di- 
viding the nations, so that by taking any 
circle and following it around 3^ou could 
inspect any particular class of exhibition,. 



PARIS. 35 

or by taking a transverse galleiy from 
the outer circle to the inner courtj^ard 
you could inspect the variet)- of exhi- 
bitions of any nation. In simply trav- 
ersing the circles and galleries of the Ex- 
position, without wandering in the mazes 
of curious things, a distance of fifty-four 
miles would have to be walked to obtain 
even a superficial view of the wonder. As 
I have said, the outer circle was intended 
to exhibit material progress in the economy 
of human labor ; the inner circle, — b}^ that 
perfect taste and exact judgment which 
made the Exposition such a grand success, 
— was set apart for the display of works of 
art and genius more akin to the soul. In 
this department, a refined taste could enjoy 
the greatest delight, and long and late did 
I linger before the inspirations of genius 
exhibited in painting and sculpture. Here 
was collected the masterpieces of art from 
Italy, France, Spain, Germany, England, 
Holland, Portugal, Russia, Norway, and 
not least of all, America, which contributed 
her grand mountains by Bierstadt, and 
majestic Niagara by Church, to give the 



36 PARIS, 

Old World an idea of the magnitude of the 
New. In this brief hour it would be im- 
possible to attempt any description of the 
Universal Exposition- — it was the world in 
miniature — Solomon in all his glory could 
have produced nothing worthy of a place 
in its aisles. The barbaric S[)lendor of 
ancient Rome would afford no gratification 
to the refined taste of the nineteenth cen- 
tury. The Exposition is over, the magic- 
lantern is closed, but the impression it 
made upon the minds of its millions of in- 
telligent visitors will illuminate the mellow 
memor}' as long as life shall last. 

Let us hurry out of the crowd and noise 
and confusion of this modern Babel and 
walk in the gardens of the Tuilleries ; they 
are fragrant with flowers and cool with 
the jets of fountains. The Emperor and 
the Empress wdth the Prince Imperial are 
frequently in the promenade, and the de- 
mocracy of France are freely invited to the 
imperial grounds. A grand and massive 
pile forming a hollow square, coveringabout 
sixty acres, affords quarters for the impe- 
rial household, and here the grand festivi- 



1>ARIS. 37 

tics of the Court and dignified receptions 
of embassadors take place. 

An imperial democracy ma}^ sound in- 
congruous, but such they seem to have in 
France, and a more perfect system of 
government seems impossible to devise : it 
suits the French people, the}^ are prosper- 
ous and happy. A compact body of forty 
millions of homogeneous people who will 
fight for an idea or a principle ;— their 
neighbors had better let them alone. 

One must not omit to visit the Hotel des 
Iiivalides — it contains the tomb of Xapo- 
leon the First. After a stormy life he 
sleeps here, by his own recj[uest, on the 
banks of the Seine, among the French peo- 
ple, whom he loved so well. IS^obh^ have 
the}^ enshrined their idol. You may hunt 
for the dust of Alexander and Ctesar in 
vain, but the remains of the great Napo- 
leon are guarded by the hearts of the 
French people, and his tomb isthe grandest 
architectural monument of which the city o? 
Paris can boast. The country palaces are 
numerous. We visited Saint Cloud, Fon- 

tainbleau, and Versailles, but shall speak 
4 



38 VERSAILLES. 

onl_y of the latter, — the magical creation of 
Louis XIV, You may form some concep- 
tion of its magnificence when you consider 
that it was built when labor in France was 
not worth twenty-five cents per clay, and 
cost the enormous sum of two hundred 
millions of dollars. The impoverishment 
of France from these exactions was one of 
the prime causes which led to the French 
Revolution. In the palace of Yersailles 
are stored all the glories of France anterior 
to its construction, and such a wealth of 
painting and sculpture can nowhere else be 
found. To inspect the paintings on the 
walls requires a walk of sixteen miles, 
whilst the finest marble statuary adoi-ns 
every avenue in the forest. The fountains 
of Versailles are the finest and largest in 
the world; and at night, when they are 
illuminated, and the jets from a huudred 
fountains piny liigh in the air, and fall in 
glittering spray, sparkling like diamonds 
in the rays of the electrical light, and 
mimic naval battles occur on artificial lakes 
with miniature fleets, it forms a spectacle 
which brings rounds of applause from 



PERE LE CHASE. 39 

the two hundred thousand spectators gath- 
ered to witness tlie magnificent fete. The 
theatres of Pai'is constitute tlie evening 
entertainment of the Parisian, and the hist 
sou is spent to witness a theatrical spec- 
tacle. One nighl at the Porte Pan Mai'tin 
five live lions were brought upon the stage 
amidst the huzzas of some thousands of but 
little less ferocious-looking beasts in the 
galleries. The balls in summer are held 
in the open air in the vicinity of the 
Champs Elysees, and amidst the glare of 
gaslight, the sound of music, and the 
abandon of evening, the painted beauties 
of Paris trip the light fantastic toe for the 
amusement of its denizens and visitors. I 
too, had to go and see these dancing beau- 
ties, merely as a matter of curiosit}^, but 
seeing a lady stand on one foot and kick a 
gentleman's hat off with the other, I pulled 
my Init over my eyes and took my de- 
parture: it was evident that she was a 
lady from the agility she displayed. 

The last place we shall visit is Pere le 
Chaise, the beautiful resting [ilace of the 
dead, and tenderly and with good taste 



40 SWITZERLAND. 

tlie}^ put away and honor those tliey loved 
and cherished in life. The street leading 
to the cemetery is devoted almost entirely 
to the manufacture and sale of chaplets 
and immortelles to beautify the graves of 
the departed ; for it is a French custom to 
visit the cemetery on the anniversary of 
interment and hang fresh garlands upon 
the graves of their loved and lost. Stran- 
gers may leave their cards before some 
great shrine, like Rachel's or Lafayette's, 
— a curious custom. 

After a month passed in the excitement 
of Parisian life, looking through the Ex- 
position, admiring the paintings of the 
great masters in the Louvre and Luxem- 
bourg, riding all about the city on the tops 
of omnibuses, delving into all kinds of 
restaurants, smotliering in theatres, sleep- 
ing only four or five hours a-night, I was 
surfeited with civilization and so weary of 
human contact, that I felt like breathing 
the pure air of Switzerland, and started for 
Geneva alone, with carpet-bag in hand. 

At the railroad depot I was fortunate 
in meeting some young Englishmen who 



SWITZERLAND. 41 

carried their credentials as members of the 
" Alpine Clab" in the shape of stout sticks 
made for climbing precipices and holding 
in the ice. The journey by railway from 
Paris to Geneva is not interesting, and was 
consequent!}^ made in the night. Tlie 
morning, fortunately, was bright and clear, 
so that as our locomotive thundered along 
the deep blue waters of the arrowy Rhone 
and passed the peaks of the Jura, we burst 
in sight of tlie city of Geneva and lake 
Leman, with the snow-capped giant Mont 
Blanc looming up in all his grandeur, the 
monarch of the mountains. The transition 
from the gayelies of Paris to the quiet 
simplicity of Geneva was peculiarly sooth- 
ing. The deep blue waters of the lake, 
the quiet sliad}^ islands, and the magnifi- 
cent mountain scenery are enough to fasci- 
nate the senses : — 

" Clear placid Lsinan ! thy contrastocl lake, 
With the wild world I dwelt in, is a thing 
Which warns me, with its stillness, to forsake 
Earth's troubled waters for a purer spring." 

Geneva has long been famous as a seat 
of learning and intelligence. Tlie greatest 



42 SWITZERLAND. 

scholars of Europe have sought the in- 
vigorating atmosphere of this mountain 
city and the freedom of the Swiss Govern- 
ment to prepare the doctrines which have 
spread so much civil and religious liberty 
in Europe. The pleasant temperature, the 
grand view of the Alps, the delightful ex- 
cursions on the lake, the cheap living, and 
the perfect freedom make the lake of 
Geneva one of the most desirable spots 
imaginable. In Montreux, a delightful 
spot on the north side of the lake, the 
longevity is greater than at any other 
place where tables are kept. IMear this 
place is the castle of Chillon, made famous 
by Byron's poem of the Prisoner of Chil- 
lon. The poem had its foundation in the 
history of Bonnevard, who was imprisoned 
here by the Count of Savoy, on account of 
his religious opinions ; and the guide ex- 
hibits the pillar and chain, and worn path- 
way in the solid stone pavement. The 
castle was built on a little island in the 
lake, a short distance from the main land, 
and connected vi^ith it by a natural moat, 
■crossed by a drawbridge, and formerly 



SWITZERLAND. 43 

coniniaiided the road leading around the 
hike. 

"Lake Lsman lies by Chillou's walls : 
A thousand feet in depth below 
Its massy waters meet and flow ; 
Thus much the fathom-line Avas sent 
From Chillou's snow-white battlement, 

Which round about the wave iuthrals ; 
A double dungeon wall and wave 
Have made — and like a living grave. 
Below the surface of the lake 
The dark vault lies wherein we lay, 
We heard it ripple night and day." 

The little island which smiled in his face 
is there as natural as yesterday : 

"A small green isle, 'it seemed no more, 
vScarce broader than my dungeon floor. 
But in it there were three tall trees, 
And o'er it blew the mountain breeze, 
And by it there were waters flowing. 
And on it there were young flowers growing." 

A Sunday evening never to be forgotten 
was spent in the Castle of Chillon. After 
reading Byron's poetical description you 
will not of course expect to hear anything 
more from me. 

From tliis dungeon we sought the free 
Alps, and the next day started for tlie val- 



44 SM'ITZERLAND. 

ley of Clianiounix. Here I found my old 
friend the mule, that serviceable, obstinate, 
unmanageable, docile companion of man ; 
but of all the mules that ever tried the pa- 
tience of a Christian, these Alpine mules 
exceed all others — they are as old as the 
Alps, and the pilot of a steamboat could 
not guide one of them, — you would be 
about as comfortable on a windmill. A 
travelling companion of mine was once en- 
raged to blasphemy by a mule, and said, 
if God had created such a beast he would 
never worship Him — it was a wicked in- 
vention of man. In going to Chamounix 
you have to pass the Mer de Glace, or sea 
of ice, formed by the melting of the snow 
from Mont Blanc, and this is sometimes., 
perilous : — 

" The glacier's cold and restless mass 
Moves onward day l)y day." 

Chamounix is the nearest village to 
Mont Blanc, and where the preparations 
are generally made for those who are am- 
bitious to make the ascent, which simply 
requires a certain amount of labor, expo- 



SWITZERLAND. 45 

sure, aiul moiie3\ The grand old monarch 
of the mountains, wliite-headed with the 
snows of ages, looms up fourteen thousand 
eight hundred and seven feet above the 
level of tlie sea. De Saussere, a scientific 
Swiss, was twenty-seven years engaged in 
efforts to reach the summit before he finally 
succeeded. In the Alps he is honored as 
the discoverer of a new world, and is the 
deity worshipped by the guides. I had 
become by contact somewdiat familiar with 
the mountains in America, and love moun- 
tain scenery — its inspirations are freedom 
and its atmosphere is health. The moun- 
taineer is any day a nobler specimen of 
humanity than the lowland man — he lives 
nearer heaven — but this grand old hoary 
Mont Blanc excited my veneration and 
admiration to the utmost. I pardon an 
English member of the " Alpine Club" for 
coming here every summer to get a view 
from a different angle. Farewell, Mont 
Blanc, I have come to greet you from 
Mount ITood, from the Sierra Nevadas, 
from the Rocky Mountains, from the Sierra 
Madre. from your brethren in America 
— hail and farewell ! 



46 SWITZERLAND. 

I had read in my boyish days of the good 
monks and faithful dogs of San Bernard, 
and next started to visit this monastery, 
or hospice, as it is called, located on the 
highest habitable part of the Alps, in the 
most desolate, bleak, and barren pass, sur- 
rounded by eternal snows. Here for a 
continuous period of nine hundred years 
the monks of St. Bernard have served Grod 
and man, worshipping the one and succor- 
ing the other. As I arrived alone and on 
foot at this house of God on the evening of 
the 3d of July, the impression of the deso- 
late scene was painful. A kind monk re- 
ceived me, 

" As a Santon receives to his dwelling of stone, 
In silence some pilgrim the midnight may bring ; 
It may be an angel that weary of wing 
Hath paused in his flight from some city of doom, 
Or only a wayfarer strayed in the gloom." 

A frozen lake in the lap of the mountains 
furnishes water, but all else has to be 
transported on mule back up the moun- 
tain. The genius of Napoleon never 
achieved a more difficult task than crossing 
the Alps with the French armj^, and even 



SWITZERLAND, 47 

now, with the road that he built as a 
monument of iiis greatness, it seems no 
easy task. When Gen. Desaix fell at the 
battle of Marengo, and died in Napoleon's 
arms, he comforted the dying soldier with 
the assui-ance that he should have the Alps 
for his monument and be buried at San 
Bernard. A marble monument in the 
church attests the performance of Napo- 
leon's promise. Those who perish in the 
snows and are found by the keensfcented 
dogs are brought to the hospice ancl placed 
in the dead house, (a stone building de- 
tached from the convent). They remain 
there in the same position in which they 
are found, awaiting the recognition of 
friends. It was not a pleasant sight to 
look upon the frigid contortions of death 
and the shrivelled lips exposing the hideous 
face and sunken eyeballs. After tea, 
(that is, a substantial meal of meat, vege- 
tables, pastr3% and wine,) we retired to 
the drawing-room, and had music on the 
piano by some ladies who were enjoying 
the hospitality of this remote region, and 
after service I'ctired to our rooms and 



48 gWlTZfiRLAND 

warm feather beds both over and under. 
To sleep between feather beds on the third 
night in Jul}^ rnay not sound ver}^ refresh- 
ing, but I can assure 3'ou it was very com- 
fortable in the Alps. 

On the morning of the fourth of July I 
bade adieu to my hospitable friends, and 
leaving enough money in the contribution 
box to keep my account even, took my stafi" 
in hand and descended the Alps. At a little 
village called Martigny, near the Rhone, 
at the foot of the Alps, I met at dinner a 
half dozen Americans, with some ladies, 
and it w^as about midnight before we had 
finished dinner, during which time the 
American Eagle was duly perched upon 
the highest peak of the Alps screaming 
liberty to the down-trodden of Europe, 
&c., &c.— My toast ■was something about 
the Government lasting as long as the 
Alps — oblivion prevents further quota- 
tions. 

After leaving here I wandered through 
Switzerland alone, and partly on foot, en- 
chanted with its beautiful mountains and 
lakes, its free and independent people, 



SWITZERLAND. 49 

and tlie industry and morality apparent 
among these hard}'- sons and daugliters of 
the monntains. A Swiss woman is always 
knitting;- — ridino-. walkin^j, watchino- o'oats, 
driving cattle : in every condition in life 
a Swiss woman knits — from childhood 
to age it is knit, knit. The}' are the 
greatest sock knitters ontside of the south- 
ern confederacy. After leaving Switzer- 
land I wandered into Bavaria, and spent 
some days in Munich, its capital cit}'. The 
[)alacos, the picture galleries, the sculpture, 
the opera house, the king's brewery, and 
all the monuments of art which have been 
gathered in this capital open a, new and 
unknown world to the American tourist, 
seldom versed in the mysteries of German 
mythology. The Ruhmeshalle, or Hall of 
Glory, is most worthy of note, having been 
built to receive the monuments erected to 
the great men of Bavaria. In front of this 
hall, and looking over a green plain to- 
wards the city, live miles distant, is the 
colossal bronze, statue of Bavaria — tlie 
largest in the world, weighing two hundred 
and thirty thousand pounds, and standing 



50 BAVARTA. 

sixty-three feet above the pedestal. A very 
formidable woman to look at. I ascended 
a staircase through the lady's crinoline, 
and made my way through her heart to 
her head, and opening her eye (weighing 
about ten pounc's) had a fine view of the city. 
From Munich, which I left with much 
regret on account of an excellent hotel and 
the best lager-beer in Europe, I went to 
Lintz, in Austria, and thence down the 
dark rolling Danube to Vienna, and a more 
delightfid day's voyage tlian that down the 
Danube I can scarcely remember. At 
every turn of the river some ruined castle 
or dilapidated convent perched upon a 
mountain crag ; the vineyards and wheat- 
fields coming down to the water's edge 
vouched for an industrious people. The 
climate had all the softness of the tropics, 
the soil is not poor, and I fancy that with 
a good government which is now dawning 
upon them, the Austrians will rise to some- 
thing like their former power in the affairs 
of Europe. They have recently adopted 
a constitutional government, and the pre- 
sent Emperor is full of liberal ideas. 



AUSTRIA. 51 

Up to this time I had been travelling 
with chance acquaintances, but here had 
the pleasure of meeting an old fViend from 
San 1^'rancisco, Jo. Eastland, who, with as 
jolly a priest as Friar Tuck ever was, and 
a Calilbruia millionaire, by the appropriate 
name of Caslnnan, had been to the centen- 
nial of St. Peters, iu Rome. We now 
now joined company, and travelled to- 
gether with great pleasure for nearly a 
month. 

In Vienna, we find the races of eastern 
and western Europe blended with a tinc- 
ture of northern barbarism. Bounded on 
the south by the Turk, on the west by 
Protestant Germany, and on the north by 
the Russian colossus, the little Austrian 
has a very difficult role to perform. He is 
consolidating his empire, and in that acting 
wisely. He is Emperor of Austria and King 
of liungai-y and King of Bohemia. His 
coronation as King of Hungary was one of 
the most magnificent pageants of wliich 
history has preserved a record. Near tlie 
same time, by a strange fatality, his brother 
Maximilian lost his life in attempting to 



52 AUSTRIA. 

found a djaiasty in Mexico. Of that event 
it is not our province to speak, except to 
bear testimony to the shock with which 
the announcement was received in civilized 
Europe, and the universal regret of the 
Austrian and German, and, in fact, the 
whole European people, for the sad event. 
It was m}^ good fortune to be in the cathe- 
dra] of Vienna on that Sabbath-day which 
was set apart to celebrate mass with all 
the pompous ceremony of the Roman 
Church for the repose of the departed soul 
of the beloved Maximilian ; and as the 
deep-toned organ pealed forth the solemn 
service, many a heart bled tears for the 
unfortunate young prince. The remains 
of the royal familj^ of the House of Haps- 
burg for eight centuries repose in the crypt 
of this cathedral. This is the oldest ruling 
djmasty in Europe, and the tombs or coffins 
of many of its members are of silver, gor- 
geously worked, and others are only of 
lead. The tomb of Marie Therese is mag- 
nificent, as was her throne. One of the 
tombs, of solid silver, is valued at about 
sixteen thousand dollars. The King of 



BOnEMIA. 58 

Rome (son of Napoleon) reposes in a sim- 
ple lead coffin, but measures have been 
taken by his imperial cousin to have his 
remains removed to Paris to repose b}^ his 
father, and fill the chasm in the imperial 
succession of the dead. 

From Vienna we went to Prague, in 
Bohemia, over a beautiful and highly-culti- 
vated country, and there, in a city scarcely 
known to the western world, we found 
colleges and eminent seats of learning, 
which flourished and gave education to 
Europe before America was discovered. It 
is filled with old churches, old bridges, and 
monuments to the early sovereigns. The 
palace of Wallanstein remains a monument 
to the taste and elegance of Marie Therese's 
great captain in the thirty years' war — it 
was the only palace in which I saw a tour- 
nament ground preserved as it was" in the 
days of chivalr}', when the knights met in 
an enclosure, from which there was no 
escape, and contended for the prize of 
beauty. 

From Prague we went to Dresden, the 
capital of Saxony, going down the Elbe 



54 SAXONY. 

amidst the beautiful scenery of what is 
called the Saxon Switzerland. The Koe- 
nigstone, or King's Stone, is a fortification 
on one of the most prominent peaks, and 
although its destruction has been attempted 
b}^ Napoleon, Frederick the Great, and 
nearly every other military chieftain who 
has devastated Europe, it has always re- 
mained the stronghold and safe deposit for 
the kings of Saxon}^ and in time of war 
the crown jewels are sent there for safe 
keeping. Dresden is considered one of the 
most delightful places in Europe for a per- 
manent residence, and many Americans 
are domesticated there. Economy, educa- 
tion, amusement, or health are fully con- 
served by a residence in Dresden. The 
picture galleries are not second to any in 
Europe. The opera house is one of the 
finest; and is well patronized. The lager 
beer is good ; the music in the gardens is 
splendid ; the people are kind and sociable. 
What more could heart desire ? The kings 
of Saxony formerly had large revenues 
from the silver mines of Freiberg, and ex- 
pended their wealth in the purchase of 



paintings, rare works of ait, diamoiids, and 
precious stones. The jewelry in one room, 
called the green vaults, in the palace of 
the King of Saxony is estimated at fifteen 
millions of dollars of our money. 

Leaving the delightful capital of iSaxony 
we were soon in Berlin, the capital of 
Prussia, now the seat of Government of 
of the North-German Cou federation. In 
coming from southei-n to northern Germany 
a marked dilTerence is observed in the 
thrift, comfort, and intelligence of the peo- 
ple, — whether it is the result of climate, 
religion, or education we will not under- 
take to decide. In Berlin, everything 
hears the sti'ong impress of militar}' disci- 
pline ; the city looks like a huge bari'ack ; 
and the soldiers of Prussia, in their stalwart 
forms, passionless faces, and steel helmets 
remind one of the iron soldiers of Rome, 
who stood at their post amid the flowing 
fiery lava of Mount Vesuvius ; and if war 
occurs again in Europe the power of uni- 
fied Germany will descend on southern 
Europe like that fiery and irresistable ava- 
lanche. In Berlin, Frederick the Great 



56 PRUSSIA. 

appears to be the presiding genius. His 
colossal equestrian statue is one of the 
most magnificent monuments in Europe, 
standing seventeen feet on a granite pedes- 
tal of twenty-five feet high, surrounded by 
thirty-one of his leading generals and 
statesmen, and ornamented with mytholo- 
gical groups and has reliefs. His palace is 
of immense size, having many grand apart- 
ments filled with sumptuous furniture and 
fine paintings. On one side of the entrance 
is a stairway, and on the other a carriage- 
wa}^ both leading to the upper stories. 
The two churches exactly alike have a 
curious history : During the French occu- 
pation Napoleon caused the erection of a 
fine Roman Catholic cathedral, and after 
the Restoration, the Prussian Government, 
not wishing to commit .the sacrilege of 
destroying the church,,''built another pre- 
cisely like it for Protestant worship. Be- 
tween them is the opera house, a fine 
building, where the German passion for 
music is fully gratified by great perform- 
ances. At the Conservatory of Music we 
saw all the instruments which German 



paussFA. 57 

talent has iuvciited, closing with a musical 
man in full uniform, who trumpeted as 
gaily as if he was as full of life as he was of 
wind. There is one street in Berlin which 
attracts universal admiration — " Unier den 
Linden"' — not from its beautiful name, but 
for the long avenues of linden trees planted 
in rows on each side of the carriage way 
for a mile, giving a grateful shade in this 
brick-built city. In this brief hour I can 
attempt no account of the environs of Ber- 
lin, The Thiergarten, just outside of the 
Brandenburg gate, forms the park of the 
city, and here, under the shade of a forest 
as dense as any in the western world, you 
may ride or drive for miles amid the beau- 
ties of nature and creations of art. 

Potsdam, eighteen miles from Berlin, 
is the ro3^al residence, and contains within 
its precincts five or six different palaces. 
Sans Souci is the creation of Frederick the 
Great, and contains many mementoes of 
tliis singular man., interesting to those 
familiar with his histor}'. A painting of 
the great king, with his neices, listening to 
A'^oltaire reading, impressed nie greatly, and 



58 PRUSSIA. 

left an unfading image on my memory. He 
loved his dogs so well that it is said he en- 
tertained them at table, and the tombstones 
erected to their memory are yet visible. 
The fountains and statuary at Potsdam 
nearly equal those of Versailles, which 
were the envy of all the European mon- 
archs at the time of their erection. 

Babelsberg is the principal residence of 
the royal family of Prussia, and a more 
enchanting- palace could scarcely be imag- 
ined. The views are all tliat art and 
nature could combine, and 

"Every pi'ospect pleases." 

The domestic simplicity which pervades 
the royal household is very pleasant, and 
3^ou imagine that the eldest daughter of 
the good Queen Victoria is very happy 
amidst her children, her birds, her chickens 
and her flower gardens. The famous wind- 
mill, in view from the palace, is still pre- 
served as a monument of Prussian justice. 
The king desired the ground on which the 
mill stood as an addition to his royal de- 
mesne, but the stubborn miller would not 
gratify this whim of his royal neighbor, 



PRUSSIA. 59 

<and litigation ensued, in which the king 
was defeated before the courts ; but har- 
boring no resentment, he gave the miller a 
pension, and ever since tliis famous mill 
has been preserved as an evidence that the 
King of Prussia was not superior to the 
laws of his realm. 

Not the least interesting of these royal 
residences was Gharlottenhof, a palace in 
the Pompeiian style, in which the great 
Humboldt lived, and here, as the house- 
keeper told me, wrote his " Cosmos." 

Before leaving Potsdam we visited the 
tomb of Frederick the Great. Here the 
Emperor of Russia and King of Prussia 
met at midnight and swore eternal friend- 
ship over the remains of the great captain. 

From Berlin we went to Hamburg, the 
great commercial port of Germany, and 
spent some time in looking at the Alster 
basin, covered with the fleets of nations, 
and enlivened by hundreds of the celebra- 
ted Hamburg swans, typifying peaceful 
commerce.. The exchange of Hamburg is 
well worth visiting, and the hum of five 
thousand voices engaged in bartering, re- 



60 PRUSSIA, 

senibles neither the swell of the ocean nor 
the voices of the land, but the two com- 
mingled in the busy exchange of the pro- 
ducts of human industrj-. In this city the 
costumes of the natives, of the flower girls, 
the Vreelanders, and of the antique natives 
of the Xorth Sea islands were extremely 
picturesque. 

From Hamburg we went to Hanover, 
the recent capital of the blind King Greorge, 
who has been dispossessed b}- Prussian 
armies, a.nd ends his dynast}^ upon a pen- 
sion. Hanover is a delightful place, and 
the earl}' Georges of England naturally 
longed, and frequently threatened, to re- 
turn to their native Grermany, to seek relief 
from the storms of English politics. In a 
beer-garden here we had twelve thousand 
gas-lights burning, and amid all the throng 
not one suspicious-looking person was to 
be seen. 

We stopped awhile at Brunswick, the 
ancient seat of the dukes of Brunswick, and 
saw here some curious and interesting me- 
mentos, brought from the Holy Land by 
their crusading ancestors. The tomb of 



PRUSSIA. CA 

Queen Caroline was full of sad interest. 
The celebrated black-horse cavalry, with 
the uniform bearing the death head and 
cross bones, were on parade during our 
stay, and we were fortunate in witnessing 
the evolutions of so important and histori- 
cal a corps. They were most celebrated 
at the Battle of Waterloo, where their 
leader, the Duke of Brunswick, 

w ' ' Foremost fighting fell. " 

From Brunswick our way led over a 
beautiful and highly-cultivated country, 
through Hesse Cassel, to Frankfort-on-the- 
Main, the old capital of the German em- 
pire. Here we passed several days visiting 
the most noted places in the city and sur- 
rounding country. The guide will be par- 
ticular to show you the shop in wliich the 
founder of the house of Rothschild formerly 
sold old clothes, and the window from 
which Martin Luther first launched forth 
the doctrines of the Reformation. The 
cathedral, in which all the emperors of 
Germany have been crowned since Charle- 
magne, and which contained their portraits, 
6 



has been burned since the date of my visit. 
A statue of Ariadne on the tiger, exhibited 
liere, is considered one of the finest produc- 
tions pf modern art. Several copies are 
in the United States. 

Frankfort is a general focus and di- 
verging point for tourists in German}'-, 
and the centre of the celebrated watering- 
places, which at this season attract the 
invalid, the idle, and the rich from all 
Europe. 

Homburg, one of the latest creations of 
the genii who stretch their golden wands 
over the bubbling " brunnens " of nature, is 
only ten miles from Frankfort, and a more 
enchanting place can scarcely be found 
outside the Arabian Nights. Here, too, 
dame Fortune spreads her wiles in the 
shape of glittering piles of gold heaped up 
upon the green cloth to tempt the erring 
and avaricious nature of man, and gentle 
woman too ; and under the glare of gas- 
lights, the glitter of diamonds — dress and 
beauty reflected from polished mirrors — 
amidst so much gentility, such elegant 
politeness, such distinguished people as 



PRUSSIA. G3 

tlie Prince of Wales and tlie Rev. Dr. 
Bellows, there could certainly be no harm 
in risking a few gold pieces. 

From the crowded saloons of the gamb- 
ling houses of Germany we sought the pure 
mountain air of Heidelberg, at the junction 
of the Neekar and the Rhine, in order to 
visit the castle of that name, the grandest 
ruin in Germany, and peihaps in Europe. 
The castle was founded in tlie fourtecntli 
century, and partakes of all ihe styles of 
architecture since that time. It has been 
pillaged three times, bombarded five times, 
once struck by lightning, and twice hiid in 
ashes, but yet preserves the features of a 
majestic ruin. Fi'oni the terrace overlook- 
ing the town the most extensive and pic- 
turesque view of the winding rivei's, the 
waving wheat fields, and the luscious vine- 
yards may be obtained. The celebrated 
wine cask of Heidelberg, with a capacity 
of two hundi'cd and eighty-three th.onsand 
bottles, is yet i)resei'ved, but no loyal j)ea- 
santry now fill it with wine and dance upon 
the platform at the coiiclusion of the vint- 
age, as in days of yore. 



64 THE RHINE. 

After leaving Heidelberg we took our 
course down the — 

' ' Wide and Mending Ilhiue, 
Whose breast of waters broadly swells, 
Between the banks which bear the vine, 
And hills all rich with blossomed trees, 
And fields which promise corn and wine, 
And scattered cities crowning these. 
Whose far white walls along them shine. 
And peasant girls, with deep blue eyes. 
And hands which offer early flowers. 
Walk smiling o'er this paradise. 
Above the frequent feudal towers. 
Through green leaves lift their walls of gray. 
And many a rock which steeply lowers, 
And noble arch in proud decay, 
Looked o'er this vale of vintage bowers. 
The river nobly foams and flows, 
The charm of this enchanted ground, 
And all its thousand turns disclose. 
Some fresher beauty varying round. 
The haughtiest breast its wish might bound 
Through life to dwell delighted here ; 
Nor could a spot on earth bs found, 
To nature and to me so dear." 

It would be egotistical to attempt any 
description of the enchanting Rhine ; it has 
exhausted poetry and romance. The leg- 
ends of the Rhine are known to every 
language, and its poetry is sung in every 
land. The Crusaders carried its fame to 



COLOGNE. Gi 

the Holy Sepulchre, and the sons of the 
Rhine uphold its glories in every nation. 
The castles are preserved as mementoes of 
a by-gone age, when feudal lords demanded 
tribute of passing commerce ; but now the 
American-built steamboat carries thou- 
sands of tourists daily -up and down its 
beautiful shores without an}' fear of rob- 
ber knights, except those who keep hotels 
and fleece travellers. The tourist who can 
spare the time should stop along the Rhine 
at the man}' interesting cities, castles, and 
fortresses which line its banks, all full of 
historical interest, legend, and story. But 
like the voyage of life, we are too soon at 
Ihe terminus, and step ashore at the famous 
city of Cologne, — famous for its Cologne 
waters, and cathedi-al, and a great many 
other things. The cathedral was com- 
menced in 1248, and when finished, if the 
world should last long enough for its com- 
pletion, and the fixithful continue to supply 
funds, it will be the most stupendous and 
magnificent monument ever erected by 
human hands to the service of the Creator. 
The church of St. ITrsula liere tried my 



66 COLOGNE. 

credulity to the utmost. I made it a rule 
never to doubt the statement of a guide or 
commissionaire, as they are pleased to be 
called, because I observed that when the 
veracity of one of these gentlemen was 
called in question by some caviller in 
antiquities, he would soon pay more at- 
tention to the credulous members of the 
party, and I was quite willing to swallow 
his statements for the sake of his informa- 
tion. The story about St. Ursula is that 
she was the daughter of the king of Brit- 
tany, and undertook a pilgrimage to Rome, 
accompanied by eleven thousand virgins ; 
and after having received the benedictions 
of the Holy Father, returned safely as far 
as Cologne, when the barbarous Huns, 
being enamored of the beautiful virgins, 
proposed that they should stay and assist 
in populating the colony ; but the eleven 
thousand virgins, resisting and resenting 
this proposition, were all massacred. H' 
any one doubts the story, he may go there 
and see the bones ; they have been gath- 
ered up and preserved in this temple of 
chastity, and many of the skulls are dressed 



BELGIUM. 67 

and ornamented with jewelry and precious 
stones — the ribs and smaller bones woven 
in ornamental figures around the sides and 
roof ot'the church, festooningthe sepulchre. 
As 1 was desirous of bringing to America 
some genuine Cologne water, I bought 
some bottles of a very handsome lad}^, who 
assured me that she w^as the wife of Jean 
Maria Farina, but I afterwards found out 
that she was not his wife at all ; and more- 
over, if she had been, there were thirty 
other houses selling Cologne water under 
the celebrated name of Farina. 

Many people do not like the city of Co- 
logne ; that is because they stay in it. If 
the}^ would go out to the beer garden, a 
few miles distant, they would like it much 
better. Coleridge says : — 

"The river Rhine, it is well kuown, 
Doth wash your city of Cologne, 
But tell me; nymphs, what power divine 
Shall henceforth wash the river Rhine. " 

On the way from Cologne to Brussels I 
stopped a few hours at Aix-la-Chapelle, 
the birth-place and tomb of Charlemagne. 
In the cathedral which he Ijuilt, a jjlaiM 



68 BELGIUM. 

marble slab, with the inscription "Carlo 
Magno," is all that remains of the great 
emperor. This chapel contains the swad- 
dling clothes in which the Saviour was 
wrapped, a locket of the Virgin's hair, a 
piece of the true cross, and many other 
relics which are exhibited only every seven 
years, when pilgrimages are made to this 
shrine by the devotees of the Roman 
Catholic faith. 

Brussels is a miniature Paris, with a 
large population of English residents ; its 
history is intensely interesting as the capi- 
tal of the Xetherlands, and in the progress 
of the Reformation. The palace of Charles 
V remains in a good state of preservation, 
and in its day witnessed many gorgeous pa- 
geants and scenes of blood. The place of 
execution was in front of the palace, and it 
was the boast of the Duke of Alva that 
during his reign eighteen thousand heretics 
had perished by the gibbet, the rack, the 
sword, and the flames. Such is religious 
fanaticism ! Belgium now boasts one of 
the most liberal governments in Europe, 
and seems to be filled with an industrious 



WATERLOO 69 

and tlirifly population. My principal ob- 
ject in going there was to visit the battle- 
field of Waterloo, about twelve miles south 
of Brussels. We engaged seats in the 
English coach, which drives around with a 
great flourish of trumpets, postillions in 
top boots, until a load is obtained, and 
then they very coolly drive back to the 
livery stable and transfer the passengers to 
a more humble vehicle. On the road to 
Waterloo the small boj's, and girls too, 
make a living by turning summersaults 
and making whirligigs of themselves, not 
for the amusement, but the annoyance of 
travellers. They will keep alongside your 
carriage the whole twelve miles unless 3'ou 
pay, and pay you will sooner or later to 
get rid of the nuisance. Once arrived on 
the battle-field, the attack of Blucher does 
not equal the onslaught of the guides ; no- 
thing but the perseverance of Xapoleon's 
old guard equals their pertinacity. The 
old soldiers are all willing to fight their 
battles over again for the sake of a few 
francs, and will nioi-ethni "thrice slay the 
slain," if well paid for it. Tlie nioiminciit 



70 WATERLOO. 

erected on the battle-field is a conical mound, 
two hundred feet high, surmounted by a 
bronze figure of the Belgic lion, with his 
paw on a cannon ball, "respecting " France. 
From this summit a good view is obtained. 
The farm houses on the battle-field are 
preserved as nearly as possible in the same 
condition as when the terrible conflict 
ceased, and but for the smiling fields of 
grain and verdure of the surrounding 
hedge rows, the riddled walls of La Haye 
Sante and the Chateaux of Hougoumont 
would indicate a more recent battle. The 
attack was commenced by Napoleon, at 
eleven o'clock in the morning. Blucher 
had promised to arrive on the field by one 
o'clock, but did not come to Wellington's 
assistance until seven. The battle was 
ended at nine ; nearly fift}^ thousand men 
were dead ; Napoleon was a fugitive. It 
is very easy to read the history of the 
battle from the monument which stands in 
the centre of the field. It was the pivot 
on which the destiny of Europe turned, and 
a day spent there brings to mind the vivid 
description of the battle by Victor Hugo. 



HOLLAND. 71 

Let US away from this scene of carnage 
to the peaceful cities of Holland, where 
our Dutch ancestors reap the reward of 
industry in contentment and peace. It 
does not require much time to travel over 
Holland. One could see it all at a glance if a 
sufficient elevation could be obtained, but 
the only elevations in Holland are church 
steeples and wind-mills. Of these there 
are an abundance — more than in any other 
country ; and of windmills there are ten 
thousand. A Hollander reminds me of a 
beaver who has built a dam against the 
water, and has to keep everlastingly at 
work to keep his nest dry. The Dutch 
have walled out the sea ; but the sea is a 
formidable opponent, and the Dutch have 
to keep their dams in repair, or wake up 
some fine morning and find their country 
submerged. The canals leading to the sea 
pass into the interior and afiord a very 
cheap and easy transportation. Antwei-p 
in Belgium, is the principal seaport of the 
Xetherlands, and is well worth visiting, if 
only to see the cathedral and the great 
paintings by llubens ; especially the Kleva- 



72 HOLLAND. 

tion and Descent from the Cross. You can 
lihger before them for hours. The sph^e 
of the cathedral is the highest in Holland ; 
some say over four hundred feet. The as- 
cent was very tiresome, but the view repaid 
us for the labor. I noticed here a chime 
of bells — the clappers held with wires, 
which were so arranged that the organist 
could perform on them with an instrument 
like a piano. 

The Hague, the capital of Holland, is a 
delightful shady place, full of canals, trees, 
and parks. The painting called Paul 
Potter's Bull will amply repay any one for 
a visit to the Hague, as it is one of the finest 
paintings of animal life ever made. The 
queen's palace, near the Hague, is one of 
the most refined and elegant residences in 
Europe, embellished with artificial lakes 
and lovely gardens, the apartments teem 
with exquisite gems of painting, statuary, 
and embroidery. The king makes her an 
annual visit of ceremony. 

We must also visit Amsterdam, the 
commercial port of Holland, and one of the 
most ancient and respectable places in Eu- 



rope. You may stop here at a hotel, 
which has been used as such for two hun- 
dred and fifty years. Just think of tliat in 
this hind of everhisting changes ! Amster- 
dam lias risen from the sea, and is built on 
piles driven on iiinet}^ islands, divided by 
canals, crossed by three hundred bridges, 
and may be called the Venice of the Xorth. 
A ship canal has been consti'ucted fifty 
miles long, at an expense of about five 
millions of dollars, to preserve the com- 
merce of Amsterdam. A town is situated 
six miles from here called Broek, where 
the people are so cleanly that nQither car- 
riage nor horse is allowed to enter the 
town, and the pedestrian has to take off 
his dusty shoes at the gate and walk in 
slippers like a Turk. Even the Emperor 
of Russia had to comply with this custom. 
Rotterdam is the most convenient ship- 
ping port from Holland, and I thought it 
advisable to get out of the country for fear 
of being washed out. Everywhere women 
were sluicing water about and scrubbing 
everything they could get hold of, and I 
was naturally afraid they would scrub me. 



74 ENGLAND. 

In Rotterdam the men appenrerl to be 
principally engaged in coloring meerschaum 
pipes, I however saw thirty-two of them 
trying to drive a pile ; by raising a weight 
and dropping it on the pile, then they 
would all sit down and smoke a fresh pipe 
of tobacco. A steam pile-driver in San 
Francisco could have done the job in the 
course of an hour, but these people would 
consume all day. I mentioned the steam 
apparatus to the manager, but he lit his 
pipe and said it would never do in Holland ; 
the people had no other way of earning a 
living. I had neither time nor inclina- 
tion U) argue with a Dutchman, and so 
took the steamer from Rotterdam for 
London. 

On a bright Sunda}?" morning we steamed 
up the river Thames, and anchored at St. 
Catlierine's wharf, near the Tower of Lon- 
don. It was with intense gratification we 
again set foot upon English soil. To hear 
our native language, and mingle with peo- 
ple of the same race, with whose history 
we are identified, is more agreeable than 
wandering among foreigners to our Ian- 



ENGLAND. <0 

guage and our liistoiy, and wo can truly 
say : 

"Old England, Avith all thy faults we love thee still."' 

A great musical festival was coming 
off at Birmingham, and thence we hied. 
There were five hundred performers on the 
stage, i^iuims Reeves, the great tenor of 
England, and Ciiristine Xillson, a second 
Swedish nightingale, were the principal 
stars. Jeiui}^ Lind Goldsmidt has retired, 
and lives in a quiet English home near 
Wimbledon Common. 

Stratford-upon-Avon, the birth-place and 
tomb of the immortal Shakespeare, couhl 
not be omitted, and a holier admiration of 
the great author must steal over one who 
rc^ts awhile by his tomb in the quiet vil- 
lage church-yard, under the shade of ven- 
erable trees, by the soft flowing Avon. ITow 
much more appropriate than a tomb in tin_^ 
dust- of Westminster Abbey ! I copied 
from the tomljsto.ie the ei)itnj)h written l)y 
himself : 

"Good fivnd, for .Jesus' sake forhfare 
To dig t!ie dust endoascd heare, 
Blesse be ye man yt spares these stones, 
And curst I);; he vt moves my bonef." 



76 ENGLAND. 

The school-house in which he received 
his early training is still continued as of 
yore, and the dwelling in which he lived is 
preserved with care. His wi'iting-desk and 
chair, and the sword with which lie sti'ut- 
ted the stage, and many personal relics, 
are cxliibited to visitors by a tall and 
gaunt dame, who claims descent from the 
Shakespeare family. 

Warwick Castle, the ancient seat of 
Beauchamp, Earl of \Yai-wick, tlie king- 
maker of England, is a grand and pictur- 
esque old fortress on the banks of the 
Avon. From here to the cast of England 
was a pleasant railway ride, and atPvov/sley 
we stopped at the most delightful country 
inn that could possibly be imagined. 'In 
a garden of slirubber}^, near by a beautiful 
clear stream of water, embowei'cd with ivy, 
is the "Peacock Inn.'' Ihe lady proprie- 
tress is a buxom English widow, "fat, 
fair, and fort}','' and if 1 should be unfor- 
tunate in my speculations in America, like 
Mai'k Topley and Martin Chuzzlewit, T shall 
go back to England to marry that widow, 
and ever afterwards live in peace. 'My 



ol)ject in going tliei'e was to visit Chats- 
worth, the countiy seat of the Duke of 
Devonshire, five miles distant, which is 
considered the finest place belonging to 
any private individual in the world, and is 
certainly the finest in England. Itcontains 
seventeen thousand acres of land, of which 
two thousand are in park, where six thou- 
sand deer run at large. The house is a 
palace, filled with all that w^ealth and taste 
could procure in paintings, statuary, and 
ornamentation. The gardens are like fairy 
land, and the gardener receives a salary 
larger tlian the President of the United 
States. The fountains are magnificent, and 
a stone stair-way leading up the mountain 
may be flooded with w^ater and transformed 
into a catai-act. An artificial tree of copper 
in the grounds may by the touch of a 
spring be made to shed a spray from every 
limb and leaf, most beautiful and refresh- 
ing. From the fairy-land of Chatsworth, 
over the heath-covered moors to Sheffield, 
by a pony-chaise, was quite a contrast, al- 
though the bright flower of the heather now 
in bloom relieved the gloominess of the 



78 ENGLAND. 

barren mountain. In Sheffield we were 
again amidst the din of human industi'y in 
its greatest intensity, and the sootj- deni- 
zens of this great manufactory of iron 
and steel seem like so many salamanders 
living in a continual furnace. From Shef- 
field to Leeds the country seems one con- 
tinuous line of smoking pits and manufac- 
turing engines. 

At Leeds the n:ianufacture of woollens 
is carried to great perfection, and a spirit 
of progress marks the place. The town- 
hall is worthy of admiration, and attracted 
the Queen and Prince Albert to the open- 
ing ceremonies. From Leeds to the old 
city of York carried us back again to me- 
dieval ages, for York is one of the most 
ancient cities in England, dating back one 
thousand years before the Christian era. 
The city is surrounded by a great stone 
wall, which now serves for a prome- 
nade. The cathedral is one of the finest 
in England, and service here would suit the 
highest high-churchman that ceremonial 
church can boast of. The service con- 



ENGLAND. 79 

turned an hour and a half before tlie 
sermon commenced. One had better be in 
Rome. 

Yoi'kshire is famous for its fixt cattle 
and good living, and worthy of its fame. 
From Yorkshire up the eastern coast of 
England is interesting and romantic. Now 
and tlien you skirt along the sea, so close 
that the roar of the waves can be heard 
above the thunder of the locomotive, and 
dreams of northei-n sea kings landing 
on British shores and the later landings of 
the Stuarts, and Ravenswood perishing 
on the quicksand near his castle, fill the 
imagination until you flash across the 
historical river Tweed and find yourself 
in classic Scotland. 

As the genius who brought Scotland 
before the reading world, and invested her 
barren mountains and detestable climate 
and meaner people with the golden hue of 
his own imagination, you must first turn 
to Abbottsford, and pay your respects to 
the enchanter whose magic wand has 
bi-onght you to Scotland. 

The house and Turniture of Sir Waller 



so SCOTLAND. 

Scott remain exactly as wben he died, and 
are freely exhibited to curious visitors. 

Melrose Abbey, near by, is one of the 
finest ruins in Scotland, and has been 
made famous by her immortal bard. He 
says : 

" If thou woiild'st view fair Melrose aright, 
Go visit it by pale moonlight," 

But his daughter says he nev^er saw it by 
moonlight himself. Neither did I. An 
old song has it — 

"The Monks of Melrose made guid kail 
On Fridays when they fasted, 
Nor wanted they guid beef or ale 
As long as their neighbors' lasted." 

The city of Edinburgh, the old capital of 
Scotland, was founded beyond the date of 
any historical account, and has intensely 
interesting associations. Edinburgh Castle, 
Bolyrood Palace, and Sir Walter Scott's 
monument, are a few of the places of most 
prominent interest. 

The dwelling-houses in the old part of 
Edinburgh are sometimes twelve and thir- 
teen stories high, and the squalid wretch- 



SCOTLAND. 81 

ediiess and poverty of the people was pain- 
ful to witnes^s. The)' are very strict in the 
observance of the Sal)l)nth day, and, ns no 
travelling by public conveyance is allowed 
on Suiida}^ men, women, and children, are 
pent up in these twelve and thirteen-story 
houses to keep them as near lieaven as it 
is possible to do b}^ force. A tourist, stop- 
ping at a Scotch hotel, was coming down 
stairs one Sunday whistling, probably a 
religious tune, when the landlord hailed 
him : "Tut, mon, you can have a bottle of 
Avhiskey in your room, or play cards in 
your room, or have a lady in your room, 
but you maun whistle on the stairs on 
Sunday." 

The scenery from the hills of Kdiuburg 
is vei-y fine — 

"Traced like a map llic landscape lies, 
In cultured beauty stretching Avide." 

P'l'om Edinburgh to Stirling the most can 
be seen by going up the 1^'ii-th of I^'orth in 
a steamboat. The wiii<lings of this curi- 
ous esliuiry present the dirferciit xicws in 
every \'ai'iet3- of position, until you are 



82 SCOTLAND. 

quite bewildered by the turnings, and im- 
agine yourself in some enchanted land. 

"In measured gyres doth whirl herself about, 
That, this way, here and there forward, in and out, 
And like a sportive nymph, oft doubling in her gait, ' 
In labarynth-like turns and tAvinings intricate, 
Through these rich fields doth run." 

Arrived at Stii'ling, we are in the centre 
of the romantic part of Scotland, and every 
step is classic ground. The shade of Wil- 
liam Wallace hangs around you, and his 
monument on one of the wild mountain 
peaks opposite Stirling Castle marks the 
battle-field of the great chieftain. His 
fame has spread far and wide in song and 
story, it fascinates the juvenile mind, and 
its lesson in liistor}^ is not lost on mankind. 
The monument is creditable to Scothmd, 
but was not necessary to preserve his 
fame — 

" Build high, build low, the great name cannot die." 

The principal object of interest here is 
Stirling Castle, so celebrated in Scottish 
history, where many curious relics of the 
old barbaric times are preserved. The 
room of the bloody Douglas, the dungeon 



SCOTLAND. 83 

of Roderick Dhu, where you can almost 
fancy yon hear the echoes of old Allan 
Bane's pibroach over the dying chieftain, 
and a stone seat in the wall where Queen 
Mary used to witness the tournaments, 
when — 

" In the castle's park drew out 
Their chequered bands the joyous rout." 

The view from Stirling Castle is one of 
the most beautiful in nature, and well may 
Scott say : 

"Still on the spot Lord jMarmion stayed, 
For fairer scene he ne'er surveyed." 

Twelve battle-fields are pointed out to 
you by the polite officer who takes you 
around Stirling Castle. 

Leaving Stirling you pass over the scenes 
made classic b}^ Sir Walter Scott's beauti- 
ful poem of the Lady of the Lake, and, 
crossing Coilantogle Ford, you can stop 
and breathe your horses awhile at Dun- 
craggon's huts, and from a successor of 
Duncraggon's dame, who weighs four hun- 
dred and fifty pounds, obtain some of the 
strongest usquebaugh that Ilielandman 



84 SCOTLAND. 

ever faced the devil with. Lanrick Mead 
is a quiet, peaceful-looking plot of mea- 
dow land of about ten acres, anu has no 
gathering now but the gathering of the 
new-mown hay. 

At the eastern border of Loch Katrine 
we found a fairy little steamboat, called 
"Rob Hoy," which, making a circuit 
jiround Helen's Isle, 

"Where, for retreat in dangerous hour, 
Some chief had framed a rustic bower," 

we steamed away, across Loeli Katrine, 
towards Ben Venue, with the Scotch bag- 
pipes awakening the echoes of mountain 
and glen, until we strained the ej^es to see 
if Roderick Dhu, James Fitz James, or 
Helen Douglass should step forth ; but, 
alas ! none of these bright creations of 
fancy, that have so many worshipping vis- 
itors, made their appearance, but, instead, 
a raw Scotch mist that you could hang 
your hat upon. Crossing a narrow neck 
of land leading from Loch Katrine to Loch 
Lomond on the outside of a coach in a 
heavy Scotch mist does not 'give one a 



SCOTLAND. 85 

taste for anything in Scotland except, 
perhaps, Scotch-whiskey punches, which 
we imbibed pretty freely at Inversnaid, 
the steamboat landing on Loch Lomond. 
This is the pride of Scottish lakes, having 
innumerable islands of ever-varying form 
and outline, studded with clumps of trees, 
and at every point of view the landscape 
presents new charms of most picturesque 
beauty — 

"The lake, the bay, the waterfall. 
And thee, the spu-it of them all." 

From these romantic scenes you are 
soon whirled into Glasgow, the commercial 
metropolis of Scotland, where, if you have 
an}^ dealings with the Scotch people, you 
will soon have all the poetry taken out of 
you. Dr. Johnson was not much pleased 
with Scotland, and said "that the finest 
view in Scotland was the road leading to 
England." Tlie people have a hard, ston}', 
ungrateful soil, a moist climate, and pro- 
longed and severe winters; and having to 
keep up an eternal combat with natui-e to 
sustain life, cannot be expected to have 



86 IRELAND. 

all the virtuo:^ imagined in romance. They 
have sterling lionesty, and are faithful to 
their eoiividion.s, and no doubt many a 
warm he;nt hents under the tartan. 

"Yd still l)('iu-atli the hallowed soil 
The peasant rests him from his toil, 
And dyiiiLi', bids his bones be laid 
Wlwrc (isi Ins simple fathers prayed." 

The Giant's ( "auseway, on the northeast- 
ern coast of Ireland, is one of the great 
geological wonders of the world, com- 
posed of basaltic columns, looking like a 
vast forest of ]>eti-ilied trees, stretching out 
into the sea towards the coast of Scotland. 
This geological phenomenon has puzzled 
our scientific friends not a little, and many 
theories have l>een presented by delvers in 
science ; but the whole question is easily 
explained by the traditions of the country, 
one of which is as follows : 

"Fin McCoul, a great giant who was 
champion of Ii-eland, had a quarrel with a 
Caledonian giant, who told Fin, if it were 
not for wetting his clothes he would swim 
over to Ireland and give him a drubbing. 
Fin, with that gallantry and love of a row 



IRELAND. 87 

wliieli disitinguishes liis coiintrynien, po- 
litely constructed the causewav to Scot- 
land, and invited the Scotciinuiii to walk 
over and knock a chip oil of his lial. Tlie 
Caledonian came over. ;iiid uftcr a bat- 
tle according to the rules ol' tlic V. W.. 
linalh^ threw up tlie sponge Tiic Scotch- 
man having been fairly vaiKpiished, his 
Hibernian victor, with the generosity of 
his race, invited him to leniain on Irish 
soil, and offered him one (jf his relations 
in marriage, which the Hiehunlnuui freely 
consented to, as the Irish girls are the 
prettiest in the world, and the living in 
Ireland much better than in Scotland." 

So this accounts for the (Jiant's Cause- 
wa}^, and that hardy race oT people known 
as the Scotch-Irisli. 

The}^ had happy times in old Ii-eland — 

" When li!T kiiVL^s, with standard of urci'ii ii!ilurl''d, 
L--d the rt'd hrancli kniglils lo d;iiii:cr. 
Ere the enicrald gem of tlie \vcsl:rii w .hM 
Was phiffd on the l)row oi a -iianiii r."' 

The origin of the red branch, oi- I'cd 
hand, is a tradition of th<' firs! hinding of 
the Celts in Ireland. It had been nuriUMl 



among tliem that the first to touch the 
shore should be king. One of the leaders, 
ambitious for regal honors, cut off his left 
liand and threw it ashore, and since that 
time the kings of Ulster have worn the 
red hand on their escutcheon. 

Ireland is becoming depopuhited under 
the dissatisfaction with the British gov- 
ernment. The difference in race and re- 
ligion seems irreconcilable, and the late 
Fenian disturbances bode no good to either 
country. In ten years the exodus has been 
fift}' per cent., and now the island con- 
tains but little more than four millions and 
a half of people. . The question has occu- 
pied the attention of the ablest British 
statesmen, and as yet no remedy has been 
effectual. The most witty suggestion was, 
that the island should be submerged for 
twenty-four hours. The soil is rich, the 
grazing luxuriant, the climate good ; but 
the landlord and tenant system, and the 
church rates to support a religion which 
they consider a heres}', bears hard upon 
the Irish people, and the country which 
formerly teemed with the finest peasantry 



IRELAND. 89 

ill the world is now turned out for grazing 
pastures. 

"The liarp that oiu-o throngli Taia"- halls 
The soul of music slied, 
Now hangs as mute on Tara's walls 
As if that soul were fled. " 

Tara was the ancient cii]tii:il ol' Irehmd. 

Dublin, the metropolis and lornier capital 
city of Ireland, is on the eastei-n shore, and 
}jossesses much of Interest and grandeur. 
The vice-regal residence is in the castle, 
where the representative of (Ireat Britain is 
surrounded by an army, and appears more 
like a beseiged general than :i rider. The 
Houses of Parliament, Trinity College, and 
Saint Patrick's Cathedral, jirc tlie most 
prominent buildings. In the cathedral we 
noticed the monuments to Dean Swift and 
Stella, side by side. 

Phoenix Park is the park of Duldin, and 
the Irish people, with their native modesty, 
think it the finest in the world : tliey have 
not quite all been to Central Park, New 
York yet, but they are coming. In driv- 
ing out in the park, we were, somewhat 
inquisitive about tlie statuaiy. and our 



90 IRELAND. 

Hiberiuaii driver, not being fully posted in 
the fine arts, could not satisf}^ our curiosit}- , 
and finally answered, rather pettishly, "Oh, 
they are only some of the aristocracy." I 
replied, " You don't seem to think much 
of the aristocracy." His answer was ready, 
" And, be jabers, the}- don't think much of 
me." 

Ill going from Dublin to Killarney we 
passed tlirough " the sweet vale of Avoca" 
and magnificent Tipperary. In Tippe- 
rary the landholders can scai-cel}^ collect 
their rents, the tenants have an insane way 
of shooting agents when pay day conies 
around. An auctioneer in 'i'ipperary, in 
crying off a gun, said, " Here is this illegant 
gun going for two pound six, and war- 
ranted to pay a year's rint." 

We arrived at the Lakes of Killarney 
on a lovel}^ evening in the autumn, and 
after stowing away our luggage were start- 
ing out for a walk, when a jaunty son of 
the soil, with knee-breeches and a cap 
hung on his left ear, sidled up to us and 
introduced himself as " Happy Jack,'" and 
offered to be our guide, ^philosopher, and 



IRELAND. 91 

fi'icMicl, to take us to the bottom of the 
hikes or the tops of the mountains, to ball 
or shindy, to the illicit distilleiT, or Kate 
Kearney's dairy. In fact, this Jack would 
have undertaken anything for our happi- 
ness, at the rate of three shillings per day. 
He would hire us a jaunting car, or go with 
us on foot to the world's end. After a little 
acquaintance, we concluded to test Jack's 
lo3'alty to his queeu and couutr}^, and I 
asked, very coididentially, "Jack, are 
you a Fenian?'' He never blinked, but 
answered, "No, your honor, I am not; 
but I think every true-hearted Irishman 
ought to be." The Lakes of Killarney are 
so intensely beautiful that no description 
can do them justice. The scenery around 
the lakes is lovely. Green sward alternates 
with a forest of holly, arbutus, and oak, 
while the ivy clindjs in luxuriant masses 
over rocks and trees. In the lakes are 
many beautiful islands, like gems of emer- 
ald set in silver. In the vicinity are the 
ruins of the ancient abbey of Saint Finian, 
founded in GOO, and the more modern 
Muckross Abbey, founded in 1450. At 



n2 IRELAND. 

the time of founding this latter abbey, the 
monks phxnted a yew-tree in the oourt-vard. 
The abbey, the work o\' human hands, is 
in ruins, but the tree blooms in perennial 
beaut}', stretching its branches over the roof- 
less walls. The tombs of some of Ireland's 
greatest chieftains ornament the church- 
yard. In the vicinity are several fine cas- 
cades, and the mountain scenery not far 
distant makes a background for this Ar- 
cadian picture. 

We drove to Kate Kearney's cottage, 
and received a cup of genuine poteen from 
the hand of her granddaughter, so called ; 
but whether she was her granddaughter or 
not, the poteen was very good and bracing 
in the night air. Afterwards we accom- 
panied Happy Jack to take dinner in a real 
Irish cottage ; but as Jack had given notice 
of our coming, the landlady had prepared 
a nice dinner of mutton, turnips, and pota- 
toes, which, with a few mugs of ale drunk 
by a warm peat fire, made us comfortable. 
The potatoes in Ireland are better than any- 
where else, and the skins burst open, too 
generous to hold the nutritious food within. 



IRKLAND. 93 

One could linger ahva3's amid the lovely 
scenes of Killarne}', but it would be sad to 
die and leave the Avorld fi-om such a beau- 
tiful place. I should prefer to die in Scot- 
land, as one could leave there with less 
regret. But our visit is ended, and sad as 
it will be to part with Hnppy Jack, we 
must sever the warm chain of friendship 
which has been woven b}' his wit and 
humor. 

" Sweet lunisfillen, fare thee well! 
May calm and snnsliine long be thine ; 
How fair thou art let others tell, 
While but to feel how fan- be inine. 

"Sweet Innisfillen, lon<i- shall dwell 
In nicmoiy's dream, that sunny smile 
Wliich o'er thee on that evening fell, 
When first I saw thy fairy isle." 

On tlie way from Killarncy to Cork we 
passed tlie celebrated Blarney Castle, erect- 
ed by the MacCarthys, in the fifteenth 
century, and now an iv\'-covered ruin. 
One towei- remains, one hundi-ed ;nid 
twenty feet high, on wlii<'li tlic cch'braicd 
blarney stone is [)re.served ; Init as it is 



n4 IRELAND. 

twent}' feet below the summit the difficulty 
of reaching it is considerable. The repu- 
tation of this singular stone has been so 
great, that the peasantrj^ believed that 
whoever kissed it would be iri'esistible in 
eloquence ; and as all men who go either 
to the court of law or court of beaut}^ are 
anxious to possess this rare gilt, it is no 
wonder that there were man}^ pilgi-ims to 
the blarney stone, and I have heard of 
some young men breaking their necks in 
trying to reach it. The song sajs : 

" Tliere is a stone there, 

That whoever kisses 

Oh ! he never misses 
To grow eloquent. 

'Tis he may clamber 

To a lady's chamber, 
Or become a member of Parliament, 

Don't hope to hinder him, 

Or to bewilder him, 
Sm'e he's a pilgrim from the Blarney Stone.'' 

The "Groves of Blame}','" which adjoin 
the castle, are still very beautiful. They 
were formerl}^ adorned with statues, grot- 
toes, fountains, and bridges, but under the 



IRELAND. 95 

hammer of the "cruel auctioneer"' tlicse 
have now disappeared, and nothing re- 
mains but 

" The groves of Blaniey 
They look so chaniiiug 
Down by the purling 
Of sweet silent streams." 

From Bh^rney to Cork it was only five 
miles, and upon reaching that city we felt, 
with that painful regret which closes a tour, 
that our visit to Europe was nearly ended, 
and now comes the dreadful reaction. 

In the city of Cork we found nothing of 
much interest. With the recent impress- 
ions of the Lakes of Kiliarney fresh upon 
us, we rode about with listless indifference 
through the crowded streets and over the 
commerce-thronged bridges, scarcely notic- 
ing the monuments to Father Matthew and 
Daniel O'Connell, or the church erected in 
honor of St. Patrick, the exterminator of 
reptiles. 

In going down to Queenstown we were 
accompanied in the cars by some of the 
brightest sons and daughters of the Eme- 
rald Isle, who were goino; oH' to an enter- 



96 HOME. 

tainment on board the British fleet, lying 
in the harbor or cove of Cork. 

Our steamer, the " Cit}- of Baltimore," 
was ready, and receiving a hearty wel- 
come from our friends on board, we soon 
steamed past the bull dogs of Old Eng- 
land, our respective flags bowing a friendly 
parting salute, and b}^ sundown we were 
speeding our course over the wild waves 
of the wandering sea, towards the hopeful 
shores of the Western "World. 

In less than ten days we were mingling 
with the busy throngs in the metropolis 
of America, more hopeful than ever of our 
destiny. Our broad expanse of unoccu- 
pied lands, our rivers and railroads freight- 
ing emigrants to free homes in the west, 
our mineral regions offering to every man 
the chance of a fortune, and our free gov- 
ernment giving every man a voice in its 
administration, invite the overcrowded and 
hopeless population of the Old World to 
come to a land "which oulj^ needs to be 
tickled with a hoe to laugh with a har- 
vest." 



IIUMK. '■•" 

Let us give ihom a geiici'oiis welcome. 
The}' liave their wives and little ones to 
suppoit, ainl, perhaps, the old and decrepit 
at home. '1 hey are strangers in a strange 
land. We have been tlie same, and in all 
our wanderings not a word of insult to 
our person or conntr}', but evei'vwhere 
I'cspect and admiration. 

The greatest compliment that can be 
made to my native State is to say, in all 
sincerity, that in its beautiful woodlands, 
its varieil landscape, its happy rural homes, 
its generous liospitalit}', and the genuine 
observance of the Christmas holidays, it is 
more like Old England than any country 
that I have seen. 



H 61- 79 i| 



At the coiielusioii of tlie reading, ibe thanks ot 
(he aiulience -were tendered through tlie licv. 
Samuel Williams, and a printed copy of the 
Lecture -was recjuested. 











■J' ,\v>S!\M,V- ^-r. 



